Hot tidbits
Titbits on engineering on methods of solving/testing/rectification evolved by any engineer/technician in his profession. An early example of what this page is about was the titbits by one Mr. Marmaduke in American Power Magazine - he used to write about his practical problem solving on small ships on the high seas without much facility available readily on his ship. This used to be very good attraction for reading by engineers/technicians and follow up in many cases. '' '''Contributions, please, from field engineers/technicians of today from any part of the world, in any language.' Unlike a normal "article" page, this page welcomes authors' signatures. ---- = Remote operated garage door-opening= On one holiday one of my friends returned late in the evening with family and found that the garage door was not operating with the remote unit. What an embarrassing situation with family and friends waiting outside in the biting cold. They called an expert in that field and told him the problem. He just saw from the top of the garage door after some pushing it in, (of course by force), and put a thin but sufficiently rigid wire inside and pulled out something. Then he lifted the garage door manually from outside and opened the door. He knew the trick of the trade by his long experience. Though it shows how foolish we were, we also thought how intelligent he should be. Do not try this trick yourself. He did this trick since he knew the mechanism of the door working with his long years of experience. If you study the system of its working you may understand what he did. Please be patient, study and think but do not try. You may damage the mechanism at an exorbitant cost to you. --Dore chakravarty 06:06, 29 Nov 2005 (UTC) A hammer blow made it alright One of my senior engineers had kept his new home fridge ready packed for sending it to the repair shop in a far off place. The reason was the compressor recently refused to start but was tripping on overload. The compressor was fairly new and was under warranty. On my seeing it I suggested that he uncover the packing at the back to expose the compressor body. There after I instructed him to give a blow on the compressor body by a wooden mallet with simultaneous switching on of the fridge. Maximum trial I said two should do. If the compressor starts with this trick he is lucky. If not it has to go back to repair shop only. But to his luck the compressor started and never gave trouble there after. Do you know why this trick? Do not try this trick yourself please' Can guess how this trick worked? --Dore chakravarty 21:45, 4 Dec 2005 (UTC) ---------------------------------- Why this trick on fridge? In the early days the compressors in the home fridge were of two stage reciprocating type, driven by a common electric motor (not known today what is the construction). It was sealed in a domed container and installed at the back of the fridge to work as a sealed unit with evoparator, condenser, expansion valve etc. The crank shaft of the compressor had a slight play in their bearings. Sometimes the crank shaft used to move slightly towards one bearing and get jammed. Hence is the non rotation and tripping on load when switched on. A slight tap on the sealed body of the compressor used to remove this jam and make the compressor free to rotate. Hence this trick, but not a positive one always. --Dore chakravarty 19:04, 12 Dec 2005 (UTC)